Cycling loop: Plateau des Bornes Sud

Departure point / TER: Annecy

Length: 90 km

Difficulty: red

Total ascent: 1200 m

Direction: clockwise

Landmarks and connections : Allonzier-la-Caille (separation from Circuit du pont de la Caille n°7); Cruseilles (separation from Circuit du Salève n°20); les Petits Pierres D27 (junction with Plateau des Bornes nord n°24); Etaux (separation from Plateau des Bornes nord); La Roche-sur-Foron (junction with Tour des Glières n°45)

TER station: La Roche-sur-Foron

You start out on the same route as Circuit du pont de la Caille n°7 via Meythet and Metz-Tessy. First stop: the impressive Pont de la Caille bridge, which you must cross with your bike in hand. Then climb to Cruseilles (4 km along the main road). At the Dronières lake, take the lovely D27 with its shady bends. The Mont-Bené forest detour takes you to Chapelle-Rambaud, the summit of the Bornes plateau. On the descent to La Roche-sur-Foron, be cautious as you cross the RN203 and vigilant as you wind your way through the town, before arriving on the beautiful road to Thorens (D2). This final, hilly stretch of countryside runs beneath the cliffs of the Plateau des Glières and the Parmelan.

In July and August, the Château de Thorens is open to individual visitors. It was here that François de Sales lived, having been born a little further down the road, in another château that no longer exists. Above all, it was here that the union of the County of Nice and the Duchy of Savoy with France was signed. Minister Cavour was a regular visitor to Château de Thorens, where he worked on Italian unity. These facts were brought back into the news on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the reunion treaty of March 24, 1860.